Critic pretends to give a shit about postgrads

The University of Otago will host the inaugural Postgraduate Research Conference on Power and Politics (PRCPP) on 2 – 3 July.

The Conference, sponsored by the New Zealand Political Studies Association, will give postgraduate students the chance to present material from their disciplines for approximately 15 minutes, after which there will be further time for questions. One of the organisers of the conferece, PhD student Maria Pozza, told Critic she instigated the conference to provide a “practice run” for posgraduate students, many of whom can feel overwhelmed at the prospect of presenting their research internationally. PhD students usually receive funding to present at at least one international conference during the course of their research.

Other postgraduate conferences exist in New Zealand. However, they are intended for smaller groups and specific fields. The PRCPP is open to all students of the humanities and sciences. Pozza told Critic she chose the topic of “power and politics” because it was “as wide as I could think of, and it can be interpreted broadly to apply to as many different students’ work as possible.”

Students doing postgraduate research in the humanities and social sciences from around New Zealand are invited to apply by 1 June, submitting a 200-word abstract to the Postgraduate Conference Organising Committee.
This article first appeared in Issue 13, 2012.
Posted 7:40pm Sunday 27th May 2012 by Josie Adams.